The search for improvements in the performance of timepiece time bases is a constant preoccupation.
A significant limitation on the chronometric performance of mechanical watches lies in the use of conventional impulse escapements, and no escapement solution has ever been able to avoid this type of interference.
EP Patent Application No 1843227A1 in the name of SWATCH GROUP RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT Ltd discloses a coupled resonator with a first low frequency resonator and a second higher frequency resonator comprising means for permanently coupling the resonators to each other.
CH Patent No 615314A3 in the name of PATEK PHILIPPE discloses a movable assembly comprising an oscillating balance, subjected to the action of a balance spring, and synchronised by a vibrating member magnetically coupled to a fixed member. The vibration frequency of this vibrating member is higher than that of the balance. The balance and the vibrating member form the same, single, movable element which simultaneously vibrates and oscillates. The vibration frequency of the vibrating member is an integer multiple of the oscillation frequency of the balance.
EP Patent Application No 2690507A1 in the name of NIVAROX discloses a timepiece assembly comprising a balance spring stud including means of attachment to a plate or to a bridge. This assembly includes a balance spring with at least one strand wound into coils between an inner end and an outer end, the inner end fixed to a collet is pivotally movable about a pivot axis, and the outer end is integral with the balance spring stud. This stud and/or collet includes braking means arranged to cooperate with at least a first coil when accelerations during the contraction or extension of the balance spring are greater than desired values, to change the resulting rigidity of the balance spring when the number of its active coils are modified by local coupling of at least the first coil to the braking means.
DE Patent No 1217883B in the name of BAEHNI & CO discloses an electric timepiece with an incremental encoder and a member for driving the gear train, using a magnetostrictive vibrator.
EP Patent Application No 2487547A1 in the name of MONTRES BREGUET SA discloses a timepiece regulator, for an escapement mechanism or striking work, with centrifugal and eddy current regulation.
EP Patent Application No 1772791A1 in the name of SEIKO EPSON concerns centrifugal regulation combined with regulation by modulation of air friction, and discloses a contactless regulator using the resistance of the viscosity of a fluid, with a rotor powered by a power transfer means, and a wing having surfaces perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the rotor, arranged on the external circumference of the rotor, and which is radially movable under the effect of the centrifugal force produced by rotation of the rotor. The wing is returned by an elastic return means. A surface opposite the circumference of the rotor is the origin of a resistance dependent on the amount of motion applied to the wing.